Lap 5: Ferrari's Michael Schumacher is still trying to get past his brother Ralf's Toyota as he languishes in 13th place.

Lap 3: BAR's Jenson Button is already seven seconds adrift of the leading pair as he chases from third.

Lap 2: Raikkonen increases his lead over Alonso to 2.6 seconds.

Michael Schumacher, who started 13th in the Ferrari, has yet to gain a place.

1302: Raikkonen gets away well from pole and holds his position as Alonso challenges into the first corner.

The McLaren driver holds a two-second lead after the first lap.

Trulli gains a place over Mark Webber to go into fourth, while Villeneuve gets a great start to move up to eighth.

1300: Raikkonen leads the cars away from the grid for the parade lap. Conditions are overcast, but dry.

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen starts the San Marino Grand Prix from pole position after a stupendous lap in final qualifying on Sunday morning.

Raikkonen, who was only 0.003 seconds ahead in first qualifying, produced a combined time of two minutes 42.880secs to extend his advantage over world championship leader Fernando Alonso's Renault to 0.561secs.

The two look set to fight a private battle for victory in Imola - Jenson Button in third place was more than 0.5secs adrift in third place.

Michael Schumacher, who was third fastest after first qualifying, ran off the track on his final qualifying lap and will start 14th.

That is a massive blow to Schumacher, who needed a win in Imola to kick start his 2005 campaign.

The world champion is already 24 points behind Alonso after just three races following a disastrous start to the season by his Ferrari team.